Echoes of the Heart
by Curious-silence
Summary: Athena and Apollo split up whilst investigating in a hospital, leading to Athena panicking. My first attempt at writing Justicykes!


This is my first attempt at writing fic for this pairing, and only the second fanfic I've ever published. Any reviews would be greatly appreciated! I had to remove this and reupload it, thanks to an issue with accidentally repeating the same piece of information twice.

"Apollo!" Athena's rattled voice rung out as she ran through the almost empty white corridors, flinging door after door open in the vain hope of finding her coworker. She realised she was being noisy and disrespectful in the huge public building, but that didn't take priority right now. "Apollo! Please! Where are you?" The fearful pounding of her heart reflected the pounding of her boots on the carpeted ground. Tears that had formed at the corners of her eyes now fell down her face, dampening her shirt as she ran. But her heart grew louder and louder and the noise of her feet softer and softer on the floor beneath her. It wasn't exhaustion slowing her down. Athena could run for miles without tiredness. It was fear, cold creeping fear. As she sprinted down the long corridors she stared at her feet, which moved so fast that they became blurred. Athena cursed her decision to wear her new pair of white boots. She could feel blisters rising with every stride she took. The pain in her feet was excruciating but Athena couldn't stop running, she had to find Apollo before a panic attack set in. If she panicked, she'd get flashbacks, and if she got flashbacks, it was game over. She needed keep her eyes focused on the road ahead and slow her heart down, whilst still searching for her partner. As she looked up, she was greeted with the revelation that a wall, complete with bulletin board stood centimetres from her face. Before she could process the information and order her swift feet to stop, she had hit the hard wall, shrieking in shock. She shouldn't have fallen over, but it was too much for the slim girl as her weakened legs wobbled dangerously before totally collapsing. Athena felt herself plummeting to the ground, falling at the same rate as the countless sheets of paper that had ripped from the board at her impact. She didn't have the energy to put her hands out to cushion the fall, but she wrapped her hand around widget as a reflex to shield the device in case of landing on it. As the world around her faded to black she tried to listen to the beating of her heart over the tinnitus steadily ringing in her ears.

She awoke to two sets of heartbeats. Hers: slow but speeding back up as she drifted into conciousness, and another: strong, deep and comforting. It beat faster than hers, yet still beat in sync, like a rhythm formed by multiple sets of drum beats. She could lay there forever, listening to the familiar deep heart as it beat, walking as steadily as she had run shakily before, feeling the strong arms wrapped under her legs and under her arms, supporting her head close to their owner's chest, close to _his _heart. She heard awkwardness from tones given out by the gently pounding heart, but she could also feel determination and... a desire to protect. _He _smelt good too, a scent she couldn't put a name to, but a warm, sweet scent that was undoubtedly _Apollo's_. At the thought of his name, Athena's features twitched into a smile and she instinctively put her left hand right next to her ear, on his chest, to feel the beating of his heart even clearer than before. The walk slowed down until he had stopped moving altogether.

"You're awake!" Apollo's relieved voice boomed above her. As his voice carried through his chest and directly into her ear, Athena jumped out of her skin and out of his arms, screeching ungracefully as she felt herself falling again. But Apollo's arms reached out further and scooped her up before she could fall any further.

"Apollo..." She whispered, hugging him tightly and pressing her ear to just above his heart again. The rhythm was less steady than usual, probably from surprise at her waking- and falling. Or perhaps the embarrassment at her discovering his holding her so close. And hers? It was beating even more quickly than when she was running earlier.

"Sorry for scaring you, Athena." He whispered, stroking her long hair gently to soothe her panicky, wild emotions. Now wasn't really the time to be thinking it, but the way Apollo delivered her name was really special to Athena. It was always comforting to the girl, just closing her eyes and hearing the way Apollo let her name out, the way it always showcased his emotions so clearly. Every syllable seemed to drop off his tongue and fill the air around her with a warm atmosphere, even when he was sad, or had just woken up, the way he pronounced it was always different to the way he pronounced other people's names, like Trucy's name, or even Clay's name. If she could preserve any noise in the world, Apollo's pronunciation of her name would top her list every time. "We don't have to go back in there if you think you'll be triggered by annything. " His words soothed her.

She shook her head, both to indicate that she didn't mind the shock upon waking and to try to clear the daydreams about his voice from her head. Apollo went on, "I was really surprised when you bolted. I had no idea this kind of place scared you."

Athena cleared her throat lightly before smiling gently up at Apollo, "I'm okay now, just hospitals give me the creeps. There's so much to be feared here, death, illness, sharp objects..." Her voice trailed off as she realised what a nuisance she must be to Apollo. "...Sorry. Sorry I can't even investigate on my own in places like this." She mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

"Athena," Apollo's voice grew slightly louder as he walked out the door of the hospital. If the people milling around the visitor entrance thought they were a couple, Athena would be overcome by embarrassment on behalf of Apollo. The last thing strong, independent Apollo needed was a partner who couldn't even ask an elderly doctor a set of simple questions without getting spooked and running for her life in a hospital, a place created to preserve her life. "If you want to, you can tell me what scared you. You don't have to. But I don't mind and if I can help in any way, I want to know how." He said as he knelt to the ground before leaning against a wall, with Athena in the same position but now sat in his lap. She could feel his hand smoothing her thick ginger hair again.

"I saw a person being rushed to the operating theatre. It wasn't really anything, but it took me by surprise a lot. And..." Her voice trailed off as her eyes flooded with tears, overflowing down her cheeks. She feebly attempted to wipe them away with the back of her hand, but it was no use. She felt a tissue being pressed into her hand. She nodded her thanks before continuing. "...And I just needed to be with you all of a sudden. You always seem to know what to do and I never do. They'd better not ban me from the hospital, I might need this place sometime, as well as for investigation."

"Pathetic!" Widget squeaked noisily.

"Athena. We don't have to go back in there if you think you'll be scared by another incident. But even though hospitals can be sad or scary places, they also save lots of people's lives, make them better when they're ill and they even bring new lives into the world." His unusually kind words soothed her wracked nerves.

"That really makes me feel better, Apollo." She said, her ears trained on his heartbeat.

Suddenly she became aware of sets of eyes glaring and staring intently at her and she looked up to Apollo to see if he'd noticed the same. Apparently he'd perceived them long before, as he was glaring back uncomfortably at all those who stared at the two of them. She apologised profusely for sitting in his lap for so long before moving to sit by his side with her back against the wall like him and immediately regretted it. There was less feeling of safety and security when she wasn't lying in his arms.

She reached up to gently ruffle his carefully styled chestnut hair as thanks, taking extra care to ruffle it around the spot where he'd been hit by a piece of rubble before, in the knowledge that that area of his head had become particularly sensitive since his recovery, despite any protests he might give to his perfectly gelled hair becoming messed up, he really enjoyed feeling his hair being messed up around that area. She'd discovered it by accident one day, when she was trying to annoy him in the office one day when he had mountains of paperwork and she had none. He'd yelled at her a lot for taking liberties with his hairstyle, but the grateful and surprised emotions flowing in his voice gave him away. She could tell how good Apollo felt when she ran her slim fingers through his hair, so she started to use it to her advantage. Stroke the area hit by Ted Tonate and he'd blush a brilliant red, a shade that clashed violently with his suit and leave to do the errand she'd requested straight away. Once when he was discussing something with prosecutor Blackquill, Athena had snuck up behind him, winked at Simon, quickly brushed his hair upwards and crept off, hearing his voice suddenly reach a higher pitch than she'd ever heard it before and had the chance to see the puzzlement and amusement displayed on Simon's serious face. Gosh, she really loved knowing psychology.

"Best check in with Mr Wright." He muttered, blushing and brushing her hand away quickly before shuffling closer towards her. Athena grinned coyly before activating Widget. With a few taps of the hologram in front of her, she was video dialling Mr Wright's cell phone. It was answered immediately.

"Boss-"

"Athena! Is that you?" A young girl's voice came down the line, a few seconds before a video flashed up on the screen. "It's me, Trucy. I'm in trouble right now. I was practicing a new trick with my magic panties and I was looking for things to practice with and, well, I lost Apollo's keys to his apartment in another dimension! You can't tell Polly! But please help!" Trucy sounded breathless and panicked and Apollo and Athena could see her shaking her magic panties desperately, apparently trying to get Apollo's keys to fall from whatever dimension they'd disappeared to.

"Take a deep breath, Trucy." Athena instructed calmly. "I'm with Apollo right now. Look at the screen, we're both here. Apollo. Are you mad at Trucy?"

"...No..." He said as clearly as possible, to try to comfort the 16 year old. "No, I'm not. I can always get new keys made. We'll come over to help you search now. We're pretty much finished for the day anyway."

"You can?" Trucy's eyes lit up as she registered what he'd said. "I'd better go then. See you guys in a few minutes?"

"Yup!" Athena quickly raised two fingers to her head in a salute. "Cykes and Justice out!" She grinned.

I'm planning to continue this and make it more plotty soon, but for now, Becca out!


End file.
